Do female alpacas have heat cycles like a dog?
Alpacas are induced ovulators and can get bred anytime of the year. Most breeders breed during specific times of the year because of weather and to have crias grow up together. Female alpacas are usually bred back 15-17 days after giving birth (if it was a normal birth). They have follicular waves where the follicle becomes mature and large enough to release an egg. If the cycle is hit correctly and she is bred around this event, the egg is fertilized. Girls will spit off a male if they are not in the correct time of their follicular wave, if they are pregnant or if they have a retained CL (corpus luteum). We made the mistake of early on in our breeding days that if a girl spit, she was pregnant period and we never “teased” her again. Now we know better and tease girls regularly throughout our breeding season in the spring (mid April through mid June) and the fall (mid October through mid November). We tease weekly and then when she has spit off several times in a row, we do a PregTone
